Western Civilization Quotes
The congressman was distraught with the national immigration picture at that time. He believed that the influx of Hispanic immigrants into the United States would radically change the culture and the immigrant culture would then predominate. Throughout American history with every wave of immigration, there have been fears expressed about the culture of America. The Irish immigration, the Scandinavians, the Germans, Italians, Jews, the Chinese—all engendered fear that they would “take over” and radically change the country. The reality is that none of them took over but all made some changes and influenced cultural direction of the nation. The congressman was repeating an old refrain.
What makes this quote significant is the data—the end of the 19th century and here was an author, in a prestigious journal, warning about the potential economic competition from China which at the time was seen by most as a backward, primitive civilization which could never compete with the West. Also, Hearn was the first writer who communicated information about Asia to Americans on a large scale.
The neo-conservative expectation of the American invasion of Iraq almost a century later was essentially the same, and the false expectation led to the same kind of failure as the George W. Bush debacle of the early 21st century.
This is a fundamental difference between fascistic and extreme conservative vis a vis democratic and liberal points of view. Thomas Jefferson was the greatest proponent of the right of individuals in a society to not only question the major civilizational choices that have been made but to possibly change them for each generation which is exactly what has happened in America and most liberal democracies. However, many argue the contrary that certain fundamental civilizational; choices are so fundamental that they are immutable and may not be changed. The alternative for those who do not care for those choices is to leave the country.
